


Emily Charlton--The Rolling Stone Interview

by punky_96



Category: The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-20 00:20:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10651119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punky_96/pseuds/punky_96
Summary: Womenverse challenge to do a character interview, but keep it canon-friendly. I had to couch it in a fictional circumstance, so Andrea works at Rolling Stone and is interviewing the editor of Runway, Emily Charlton. They briefly discuss Andrea’s, now passed wife, Miranda Priestly, and their former co-workers Nigel Kipling and Serena. The year is 2057, Miranda would have been 110 so I didn’t take her too early MP fans!Sourced heavily from the Mick Jagger interview: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-rolling-stone-interview-mick-jagger-19681012





	Emily Charlton--The Rolling Stone Interview

**Emily Charlton--The Rolling Stone Interview. ******

 

By: Andrea Sachs-Priestly  
October 12, 2057

_Constantly appearing in gossip columns and making a vividly visual appearance on the world stage, Emily Charlton is quite reticent despite the statements she constantly makes in fashion. Since the departure of Nigel Kipling, the mantle of fashion royalty fell to Emily, she hasn’t been avoiding interviews exactly, there have just been so many photo shoots and galas that they’ve slipped her mind._

 

_This interview and the photographs—arguably the best of Emily Charlton in the last couple of years—were completed in October at the Rolling Stones’ offices in New York. The interview was conducted by Andrea Sachs-Priestly, assisted by Kasey Mueller. Although it may read more like old friends reminiscing, it is nonetheless the best inside view of what is still called the Dragon’s Den on the Runway floors of the Elias-Clark building—Someday a more formal interview might take place, but nowhere will you get this kind of personal connection._

 

 **When I first met you, it seemed like you only wore… **  
**** Vivienne Westwood. What can I say? I know what I like and I stick with it. My, my, Andy, how long did it take you to notice that trend?

 

 ** _Eye roll._ Very funny. It was hard not to notice even when I couldn’t spell Gabanna. I remember wondering with such an emphasis on punk and sticking a spoke in the system, what did you sleep in? **  
**** Touche, Six. Me-ow! From your blush, I know what you were thinking and will neither confirm nor deny. Tell your assistant to breathe.

 

 **You still gravitate to the, shall I say it, scandalous in fashion. Why did you choose that type of material in the beginning and how much trouble does it cause you with the Board of Directors? **  
**** I suppose then, I was rather young and wanted, no needed to claim my place here in the States and I needed to be seen. Working for Miranda Priestly required a backbone of steel, that I sometimes struggled with, and I felt that dressing edgy helped me to feel that strength, that defiance. I gravitate towards the edgy now because I think people always need to be thinking about what has come before and what we have let stagnate. Miranda paved the way with the Board like a legion of advancing Romans—it was always some kind of battle. Nigel took advantage of changes on the board and his networking skills to shape the interests and understanding of the board—he made the financial gains more important than the domination of a women’s magazine. By working at almost every other fashion publication within Elias-Clark and beyond, I bring a presence to the Board room that benefits from efforts of Miranda and Nigel and is informed by background information across the industry that they have to respect.

 

 **They didn’t respect Miranda? **  
**** Laughs. Oh, it was so different then, wasn’t it? We have to talk about her don’t we?

 

 ** _Wipes eyes._ You know we do. Besides you mentioned her first! **  
****_Blinks at this response. Then turns toward the assistant who squeaked._ Did I? Sigh. Fine then you win.

When Miranda took over Runway magazine it was a disaster and she was a virtual unknown. She rose through the ranks and turned that magazine around so fast that those suits never knew what to do with her. From the beginning she was all or nothing, my way or the highway, and they wanted to shake hands and wink and drink whiskey in the off hours to make decisions about their multi-billion dollar company. I don’t know if they didn’t respect her, or if that even entered their minds at all. I think they feared her and were desperate not to have a Women’s Magazine be the flagship.

 

 **And Nigel? **  
**** He was the right guy working with the right people. After Irving’s departure, Nigel made it his business to be part of the process that would determine his replacement. He was no less my way or the highway than Miranda, but he smiled and laughed and let them think he could be swayed. Then he came back with exactly what he wanted in the first place—with well-timed snark, or a grim fact that put him in the right, or a winning smile. He continued the tradition of excellence and Runway remained the flagship publication. The old board members had learned they would have a hard time winning and the new members saw the editor of Runway as a visionary. I admit there were times when I wanted to come back and work for him. 

 

 **Why didn’t you? **  
**** Narrows eyes and then smirks at her friend. I was beyond Assistant and there was no room for me to grow the way I needed to, nor at the speed that would make sense. There’s only one editor of Runway New York. I worked through our sister publications as far as I could, but eventually I needed to come home to New York.

 

 **So you worked for the enemy? **  
**** Please. Like Miranda and Anna were enemies?

 

 ** _Dropped jaw and hand across the chest._ What do you mean? They weren’t enemies. **  
****_Wagging a finger at her_. You, of all people know that they weren’t. Sighs. 

You know that competition was the real thing and it helps to shake things up. It was so much fun to play with the animosity in the press, a way to distract them from the rest of the things that always seemed to fascinate them. You know?

 ** _Laughs until tears are in her eyes._ Do I ever know about the press? What about you? **  
****_Giggles at Andrea’s antics_. The benefit of being involved from the early days is that its not a shocker when I date my former assistant, I mean my former co-worker.

 

 **Oh, come on. Dish about Serena. How did you guys manage through all of your moves abroad before you returned to New York? **  
**** When we were both here, this friendship developed, but neither of us thought much about it. We were each happily going about our lives and enjoying each other, but it just didn’t click that we could be anything different. So we weren’t. When I first went abroad I was busy and then we just treasured the times we were able to chat or to actually see each other. You know Serena only worked at Runway because she chose to, right? Well, you did. I guess maybe the rest of the world didn’t know. She could take vacation anytime she wanted, and she changed positions about as often as I did. No one bothered to track how her vacation path around the world or that her career choices took her to cities that paralleled mine. Well, no one bothered until rumors of Nigel’s next in line began. Wonder who leaked those to the press? _Eye roll._

 

 **You can’t blame Nigel for leaking that. **  
**** Of course I can. He didn’t even warn me.

 

 **That would have been speaking to the enemy, wouldn’t it? **  
**** Oh. Geez, we’d been friends for fifteen years by then.

 

 ** _Looks away. Takes a drink of water._ You know he did it for the girls and me? **  
****_Reaches out and holds Andrea’s hand on the table_. We all needed cheering up, didn’t we? Miranda had been retired for ten years at that point, but there was never a day that fashion didn’t look to her. She was always with us and I think we always thought that she would be. Nigel had been editor for years by then. The retrospective issue is still simply one of the best he’s ever done. 

You’re right though. With Miranda’s place left empty, the press just kept coming after you and the girls. They couldn’t go to a college party or eat carbs without someone springing on them.

Awe, Six. Don’t cry. You know I really can’t handle that.

 ** _Wipes eyes and squeezes Emily’s hand right back_. It’s funny you seem so normal, and yet, emotions still escape you. **  
**** You have another question? Hmmm.

 

 **I’m talking to Serena. **  
**** Yes, darling, we’re having dinner tomorrow.

 

 **I see you’re back seat driving again. Well, what should the final question for today be then? **  
**** Oh, something about going back to the beginning of this interview I suppose. Vivienne or Miranda.

 

 **All right. _Smirks_. Do you still copy Miranda’s coffee order? **  
**** How pithy of you, darling. Sighs. Luckily for me I always liked Miranda’s coffee order and so after decades of it I wouldn’t know what coffee tasted like otherwise. I still favor Vivienne, though I cannot afford to show the level of favoritism that characterized my youth. As for sleeping… Someone once gave me some plaid sex pistols pajamas and I still favor them.

 

 

 

_This interview is from the October 12th, 2057 issue of Rolling Stone._

 

 

 **Read more:** _http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-rolling-stone-interview-emily-charlton20571012#ixzz3668ZMsBg_

 

 

 

 **RELATED: **  
**** • Emily Charlton through the years  
• The Legacy Continues: From Priestly to Kipling  
• Catwalk Memories: Behind the scenes at Paris 1996

 

 

 

 

**FIN ******

 

 

x


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